You can say that i am an advanced newbie so excuse me if this seems obvious to others. I have a six year old xha1 that i truly enjoy working with. thought about going tapeless with an fs-cf pro but when i called the guy at B&H he told me I would still have to run tape with it. Why?

Hi Arnold,

Welcome to DVi. I'm not sure about the FS-CF Pro but we had a discussion about another FireStore, the FS H200, and our members confirmed that you did NOT have to roll tape. The link to that thread is:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/focus-enhancements-firestore/367463-firestore-fs-h200-canon-xh-a1-2.html#post1534730

You might poke around in that forum (FireStore) and find out some more info. Hope this helps,

Thanks Chris. I knew it would be on here just a little behind the times

I recently bought a refurbished Datavideo DN-60 from Adorama and it works fine without tape. It's possible to record to tape at the same time, but since the Firewire port on my PC doesn't work and I'm too lazy to replace it, I go without tape when I use it.

Same story here - I was able to use the firestore with or without tape. I chose 'with' so I had a redundant backup, just in case. Usefully, even if you run tape as well, when the tape ends the firestore carries on. Great for conferences etc.

I recently got an Atomos Ninja and just yesterday got a component to HDMI converter from Amazon that lets me run line out from my XHA1 component out using Canon's cable into the adapter and then into the HDMI port of the Ninja. Works like a charm! The cable (I don't have the part number with me) was $35 and the component to HDMI adapter was just under $50, both from Amazon. Even after the cost of the cable, adapter and a like new Ninja I have an excellent tapeless capture now for under $400! I figure it will give me a few more years of use out of my epic XHA1.

Good luck!

<<I recently got an Atomos Ninja and just yesterday got a component to HDMI converter from Amazon>> Which converter did you buy, Jim? And did the converter you chose also carry audio? Thx ~ TW